Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Former Team USA gymnasts describe doctor’s alleged sexual abuse

Attorney suing USA Gymnastics for failing to protect
female athletes believes every Olympic team since 1996 has had members
abused by Dr. Lawrence Nassar

The
following is a script from “USA Gymnastics,” which aired on Feb. 19,
2017. Dr. Jon LaPook is the correspondent. Andy Court and Sarah
Fitzpatrick, producers. Deborah Rubin, associate producer.

The
U.S. women’s gymnastics team – for all its success over the past few
decades – has become embroiled in a dark and disturbing scandal
concerning sexual abuse. Last year, the Indianapolis Star investigated
cases in which male coaches, members of the national governing
organization USA Gymnastics,
were accused of sexually abusing female gymnasts. That report prompted
young women to come forward with accounts of abuse they had suffered
within the U.S. gymnastics system for many years as young girls and
competitive gymnasts. These new accusations concern not a coach, but a
prominent doctor who’d been working with U.S. Olympic and national teams
and other athletes for three decades.

Former Team USA gymnasts, from left: Jamie Dantzscher, Jessica Howard and Jeanette Antolin

CBS News

More
than 60 women have filed complaints so far, and some believe that
number may reach into the hundreds. Now, for the first time, three former members of U.S. national teams,
one an Olympic medalist, describe – in what you should be warned is
disturbing detail –the treatment they received from Dr. Lawrence Nassar –
a man they trusted and felt so comfortable with, they called him,
“Larry.”
Jeanette Antolin: All the girls liked Larry.
Jamie Dantzscher: He was, like, my buddy. He was on my side.

Dr. Lawrence Nassar

Jessica Howard: He was so sure of himself. And as a young girl, you’re confused. You don’t know what’s going on.

Jessica Howard was the U.S. national champion in rhythmic gymnastics from 1999 to 2001.

Jeanette Antolin competed with the U.S. national team from 1995 to 2000.

She helped UCLA win three national championships.

Jamie Dantzscher won a bronze medal in the 2000 Olympics and was recently inducted into UCLA’s Athletic Hall of Fame.

They
were teenagers, in a sport where injuries are common, and the
professional they turned to for help staying in competition was this man
-- seen here in instructional videos he posted on his web site.
Lawrence Nassar, an osteopathic physician, was one of the most famous
doctors in the world of gymnastics. As a trainer and doctor he worked
with Olympic and national womens’ artistic gymnastics teams for more
than two decades. That’s him right after Kerri Strug’s famous ankle
injury in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

And that’s him today.
Since December, he’s been held without bail in Michigan, where he worked
at Michigan State University’s sports medicine clinic. He’s charged
with possession of child pornography and criminal sexual conduct
involving the daughter of a family friend. Investigators were able to
make the case against him because gymnasts went public after years of
silence. The police and FBI are now investigating dozens of other cases
involving Nassar – some decades old, others within the last two years.

Jamie Dantzscher

CBS News

Jamie Dantzscher says she started seeing Dr. Nassar around 1995, after she became a member of the U.S. junior national team.
Jamie Dantzscher: I started having really bad lower back pain on my right side on my back. So I went to him for my back pain.
Jon LaPook: What specifically would he do?
Jamie
Dantzscher: He would put his fingers inside of me and move my leg
around. He would tell me I was going to feel a pop. And that that would
put my hips back and help my back pain.
Jon LaPook: How old were you then when he first did that procedure?
Jamie Dantzscher: I was either 13 or 14.

Jessica Howard

CBS News

Jessica
Howard: I was 15 years old and I had a hip problem. A very severe hip
problem. And USA Gymnastics suggested that I go to the Karolyi Ranch to
work with their doctor.

The Karolyi ranch outside Houston, Texas,
is a mecca for elite gymnasts who have given up any semblance of normal
childhood to pursue their Olympic dreams. Run by the legendary coaches
Bela and Martha Karolyi, it’s where members of the U.S. national team
for artistic gymnastics come roughly once a month for several days of
intensive training. The girls stayed in cabins on the property, and Dr.
Nassar would be there to provide medical treatment.

Jessica
Howard: He started massaging me. And-- he had asked me not to wear any
underwear. And then he just continued to go into more and more intimate
places.

Jon LaPook: And when that happened, what, what was going through your head?

Jessica
Howard: I remember thinking something was off but I didn’t feel like I
was able to say anything because he was, you know, this very
high-profile doctor. And I was very lucky to be at the ranch working
with him.

Jon LaPook: Did any of the other girls in your cabin talk to you about Dr. Nassar?

Jeanette Antolin

CBS News

Jessica Howard: Yes. The girls would say yeah he touches you funny.
Jeanette
Antolin: I remember being uncomfortable because of the area. But-- in
my mind, I was like, “If this helps, I’ll do anything.”
Jon LaPook: Did you ever complain to anybody about it?
Jeanette Antolin: No.
Jon LaPook: Why not?
Jeanette Antolin: It was treatment. You don’t complain about treatment.

Dr.
Nassar has pled not guilty to the charges against him in Michigan. In a
statement from his lawyers, he has defended his treatment as
legitimate. There is a rare therapy for back and hip pain where
specialists massage areas inside the vagina. But for a minor, it’s
expected such a procedure should involve a chaperone and use of a glove.

Jon LaPook: Did he use a glove?
Jamie Dantzscher: No.
Jon LaPook: And how many times did you have this kind of a procedure?

Jamie Dantzscher: I mean, it happened all the way to the Olympics in Sydney, till I was 18.
Jon LaPook: From the time you were around 13 or so until 18?
Jamie Dantzscher: Yes.
Jon LaPook: And it was just-- in your mind, normal medical treatment?
[Jamie makes expression]
John Manly: You’ve got a 52-year-old man placing his hand in the vagina of nine-year-olds ungloved for no good reason. Wrong.

California
attorney John Manly represents the women we interviewed and more than
40 others – one as young as 9 years-old, and most under 18 at the time
they say they were abused.

Jon LaPook: How many women do you think he did that to?
John
Manly: We know there are at least 60 that have come forward. But my
best estimate is it’s in the hundreds and possibly more.
Jon
LaPook: Are you saying that members of the last two Olympic teams from
Rio and from London were affected by Dr. Nassar? That they were abused
by him?
John Manly: I believe what-- at the end of the day there
are members of every single Olympic team since 1996 he did this to.
That’s what we’re gonna end up with.
Jon LaPook: What makes you so sure about that?
John
Manly: Because this is somebody who is a serial predator. But the story
here is that no one was watching to protect these girls. And they put
medals and money first.

By “they,” Manly means USA Gymnastics and
the Karolyis. He’s not arguing they knew anything about sexual abuse.
Many years went by before the women we interviewed complained to anyone
in authority. But part of the reason for that, Manly argues, was a
high-pressure, emotionally abusive environment at the ranch, which he
says made it easy for Nassar to win the girls’ trust.

Jamie Dantzscher: I mean, the-- like, yelling and screaming, that was, like, normal.
Jon LaPook: Really?
Jamie Dantzscher: Yeah.
Jon LaPook: What kind of abusive things were said to you?
Jamie Dantzscher: It was never good enough. “You’re not good enough.”
Jeanette Antolin: the pressure that they put on you to-- be perfection for them, it was very overwhelming and stressful.
John Manly: it was an environment of fear. And he stepped in and became the good guy. And—
Jon LaPook: Dr. Nassar did?
John
Manly: Dr. Nassar did. And he gave ‘em candy. He gave ‘em
encouragement. He acted like he cared about them. No one else there gave
that impression.
Jon LaPook: What were these girls so afraid of?

John
Manly: Not being able to fulfill their dream. I mean you’ve given up
your childhood and you’ve given up your adolescence to represent your
country. And the Karolyis and the selection team who are there have
control on who goes. So your fate is in their hands. You must do what
they say.
On behalf of the women, attorney Manly is suing the
Karolyis and USA Gymnastics for failing to protect their athletes. USA
Gymnastics president Steve Penny declined to speak with us on camera
about Dr. Nassar. In a statement, the organization said it is “appalled
that anyone would exploit a young athlete or child in this manner.” USA
Gymnastics “first learned of an athlete’s concern about Dr. Nassar in
June 2015,” the statement said. Five weeks later, after an internal
review, it “reported him to the FBI and relieved him of any further
assignments.” USA Gymnastics told us it has long had a policy that
adult staff should “avoid being alone with a minor.”

Jon LaPook: How often were you alone with him?
Jeanette Antolin: Most of the time.
Jon LaPook: Just in the treatment area, or also in your bedroom?
Jeanette Antolin: In our cabins. They were like cabins. Yeah.
Jon LaPook: That’s like your bedroom.
Jeanette Antolin: Yeah. Uh-huh (affirm).
Jon LaPook: Yeah. And did the Karolyis know that Dr. Nassar was alone with you for these treatments?
Jamie Dantzscher: Yeah.
Jon LaPook: How-- how do you know that?
Jamie
Dantzscher: Well, they had to know. I mean, there-- there was no one
else sent with him. And that’s the thing, too, to think, like-- what--
they-- in-- in the bed? Why would you-- like, the treatment was in the
bed, in my bed that I slept on at the ranch.

Bela and Martha
Karolyi declined to give us an interview, but in a statement they said
they “were never aware” that Nassar was performing this procedure or was
“visiting athletes in their rooms without supervision.” They also deny
that there was an emotionally abusive environment at the ranch.

Long
before Dr. Nassar’s arrest late last year, USA Gymnastics was facing
criticism over its handling of sexual abuse complaints about coaches at
its member gyms throughout the country. According to an investigation
published by the IndyStar in August,
USA Gymnastics received a complaint that one of its coaches, William
McCabe, should be locked up “before someone is raped,” but did not
report it to the authorities at the time. It was only after the mother
of a gymnast called the FBI seven years later that McCabe was sentenced
to 30 years in prison for sexually exploiting gymnasts. Marvin Sharp was
named USA Gymnastics women’s coach of the year in 2010, but was the
subject of a sexual abuse complaint the following year.

USA
Gymnastics didn’t report Sharp to the police until four years later when
another complaint came in. Sharp killed himself in jail while facing
molestation and child pornography charges.
Dianne Feinstein: An association has a responsibility, or should have a responsibility. And that is to take care of its members.

Jon LaPook: And do you think USA Gymnastics has done that?

Dianne Feinstein: No.

Senator
Dianne Feinstein is the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary
Committee. She’s met with the women we interviewed and other gymnasts
and is now working on legislation to correct what she sees as a problem
in the reporting of sexual abuse complaints.

Dianne Feinstein: If
an amateur athletic association, like USA Gymnastics, receives a
complaint, an allegation, they must report it right away to local police
and the United States attorney.
Jon LaPook: So this wouldn’t apply just to gymnastics. It would apply to all Olympic sports that have a national governing body?

Dianne Feinstein: All amateur athletic organizations. That’s right.

It’s been nearly two decades since the women we interviewed competed at the highest level of their sport.

Today,
they say they’re still grappling with the psychological impact of their
competitive careers.

Jeanette Antolin told us it was only last year,
after speaking with other gymnasts, that she realized Dr. Nassar hadn’t
been helping her with her back pain after all.

Jeanette Antolin:
It was like-- almost like a light bulb went off. Like, “Oh my gosh.
Like-- are you kidding me? Like-- I trusted this man.” And just knowing
how vulnerable I was as a kid, to even not even think that something
like that would be inappropriate, just ruined me.

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